Abbott, Patrick quiet on ‘zero tolerance policy’

1of7Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, presides over the opening of the 85th Texas Legislative session in the house chambers at the Texas State Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)Photo: Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press

2of7In this photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, people who've been taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the United States, sit in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas, Sunday, June 17, 2018.Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protecti, HO / TNS

3of7Mayor Sylvester Turner arrives to a news conference opposing the proposal to place immigrant children separated from their parents at the border in a facility just east of downtown on Tuesday, June 19, 2018, in Houston. ( Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle )Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff / Houston Chronicle

7of7A protestor holds up a sign on June 19, 2018 during a press conference in front of the Detention Center in Homestead, Fla. (Jose A. Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS)Photo: Jose A. Iglesias, MBR / TNS

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick frequently talk tough about illegal immigration, but they refuse to publicly support the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy that’s spurred outrage for ripping thousands of undocumented children out of the arms of their parents.

Neither are they criticizing it.

Texas’ top Republicans are making a calculated decision to hide from the humanitarian crisis, largely taking place on Texas soil, because they are afraid of upsetting their political base.

The governor has tried to say as little as possible about the White House policy, making only one public comment backing Trump’s argument that the children’s and parents’ traumatic experiences can be used as leverage for an immigration overhaul.

“This is horrible and this rips everyone’s hearts apart about what’s going on,” Abbott told a Dallas-area TV station. He added that Trump had offered to “end the ripping apart of these families” if Democrats agree to a new immigration law.

Abbott declined repeated requests for comment from the Houston Chronicle. Instead, his staff forwarded the statement made last weekend to NBC TV. The governor seeks to appear loyal without attracting attention to himself.

“It shouldn't be a tightrope to do the right thing,” said John Weaver, a longtime campaign strategist from Texas who has consulted for Republicans like George H.W. Bush and now Ohio Gov. John Kasich. “It’s disappointing that we haven’t heard from the governor but not surprising. We’ve gone from Texas having very strong leaders to having leaders who are very calculating.”

Some 2,000 minors who crossed the border illegally were separated from their parents in the last six weeks due to a “zero tolerance” policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in April. Many children have since been sent to a tent camp in Tornillo and a former Walmart in Brownsville, among others, before being released to family or sent into federal foster care, unsure if or when they will reunite with their parents.

Patrick never brought up the separation policy or the border when he spoke for half an hour at the Texas Republican Party convention in San Antonio on Friday. His office and campaign have not returned repeated calls for comment.

“Dan Patrick’s silence, in the face of such brutality committed on Texas soil, makes him as culpable as the administration. Morally, it’s as though he wrenched the children from their parents with his own hands,” said Mike Collier, a Democratic businessman running against Patrick for lieutenant governor in November.

The Trump administration has defended the policy and urged Congress, namely Democrats, to fix the problem.

Two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the administration’s decision to remove immigrant children from their parents after crossing the border, according to a poll by CNN. However, the majority of Republicans surveyed — 58 percent — approve of the practice. The poll surveyed 1,012 people between June 14 and 17.

Attorney General Ken Paxton, a tea party Republican and attorney for a state with a 1,254-mile border with Mexico, backs the administration’s attempt to force passage of Trump’s immigration priorities.

“The separation of families should never be a desired outcome and my heart goes out to these children being used as ‘pawns’ in a political debate. The issue is whether we’ll have a secure border or an open-border,” he said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “Any changes to our immigration system to address family separation must come from Congress.”

House Speaker Joe Straus, often at odds with his party’s conservative base, is one of the few Republicans who has pushed back against the White House. On Tuesday he lambasted the “zero tolerance” policy in a letter to the president, accusing him of using “these scared, vulnerable children as a negotiating tool.”

He urged Trump to listen to faith leaders and elected officials from both parties and rescind the policy, stressing the trauma the children are going through is scientifically proven to lead to poor health outcomes, anxiety, delayed development and mental illness, “worsening the many problems that already plague our immigration system.”

Straus is among a growing group of Republicans speaking out, including U.S. Rep. Will Hurd of San Antonio and former First Lady Laura Bush who called the policy “cruel” and “immoral,” “and it breaks my heart.” Hurd is in a highly competitive race against Democrat Gina Ortiz-Jones in a district that is majority Hispanic, making it necessary to denounce Trump’s policy.

Donald Trump Jr. pulled out of attending a fundraiser for Land Commissioner George P. Bush after his father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, lashed out at the Trump administration’s handling of the border.

“Children shouldn’t be used as a negotiating tool,” said the elder Bush, “@realDonaldTrump should end his heartless policy and Congress should get an immigration deal done that provides for asylum reform, border security and path to citizenship for Dreamers.”

The policy has led to housing children in shelters including a tent city and a former Walmart before being entered into the foster care system. Images of children held in holding cells have spurred the outrage outside of the Republican party base on which Abbott and others rely on for support.

“If I were Greg Abbott’s political adviser, I’d say just keep your mouth shut and do something else and stay out of the limelight, stay out of the news as much as you can,” said Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, a lecturer with a focus on politics and immigration at the University of Texas at Austin.

Andrea Zelinski is a state bureau reporter focusing on education, politics, social issues and the courts. She previously covered the Tennessee legislature and local education for the Nashville Scene where she was news editor. She also wrote for the Nashville Post, the now defunct Nashville City Paper and TNReport news service, covered the Illinois statehouse and reported for the Associated Press and Small Newspaper Group. A Chicago-area native, she has a master’s degree in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield and earned her undergraduate degree at Northeastern Illinois University.